What would a class be like at my church?

“We have had many people from the community come through our doors for the first time for a parenting class and return at other times to be part of our church community.”
--Pastor of a community church

In the Kansas City Metro area:
Offering a class in your church can benefit church members as well as those in the community. This may be a one night class on a specific topic, a 5 or 6 week “Becoming a Love and Logic Parent”, or a class once a month throughout the school year (ie: Homework, Chores, Allowance, Innocence to Entitlement, etc.). A spiritual emphasis can be brought into parenting, marriage, and family financial classes.

The class or workshop can be open to everyone in the church or community or it can be set aside specifically for a small group, an adult Sunday school class, parents of the church’s pre-school, etc. When childcare is offered it increases the amount of attendance.

You can organize the class yourself with the approval of the pastor/staff or you can ask the pastor, staff person, or governing church body to consider setting up the class or workshop. Print off the attached catalog of classes, fees, and ideas of how to make a class or workshop work for your church.

Outside the Kansas City area:
Offer a seminar or workshop in the evening or over a weekend can be arranged at a church in any city or state. Half day Saturday workshops or Sunday evening workshops are particularly popular with churches. Contact Real Families, Inc. for a fee quote for travel that will still fit your church’s needs and budget.

Who pays for the seminar?:  Church or Participants? 
Churches that do not have budgeted dollars for a class figure out how much it would cost to bring in a Real Families, Inc. presenter, estimate how many paricipants would come, and off of that can figure out how much to charge each participant to cover the cost of the class. Laura Murphy of Real Families, Inc. can help you sort out this cost and how much to charge each participant. If more money is raised than what it cost to bring in the speaker/class  those funds can be used to bring in future speakers or be set aside for other specific projects or ministries. In most cases, families can participate in a class for $5-8/class.  

Real Families, Inc. does not accept fees to be paid directly to them from the participant; payment to Real Families, Inc. is set up as a consulting fee through the church to protect the church's not-for-profit status.  

Occasionally a church will choose to pay for the cost of the presenter as a gift to their families by using budgeted funds.

click on the "download catalog" at the bottom of the page for a complete catalog of topics, fees, etc. 

What are the benefits of offering classes through your church?

• Real Families, Inc. approach to parenting is that we use how God parents us as a model for parenting.
  
• It takes a village to raise a child---offering classes for parents and couples allows the church to give parents the tools they need to raise their children in a loving, Christian home which includes discipline, quality time together, and setting limits.
  
• Parents receive parenting information that allows them to become positive authority figures at home. There is a direct correlation between children viewing their parents as positive authority figures and how they view their Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, and leaders in the church.
  
• This is an opportunity to open up the church doors to the community to make a difference in the community as well as bring the community into learn more about the church.
  
• Parents become a support system to each other in the church community
  
• When parents participate in a class from Real Families, Inc. they receive positive motivation not just for their home life but for other areas of their lives for an overall happier, productive lifestyle.

TO VIEW AND/OR PRINT A BROCHURE CLICK ON THE REAL FAMILIES LOGO BELOW: